Washington City Paper: Contents for Apr. 11

Still Cookin'
Welcome to Franklin County, Va., land of 60,000 springs, 150 churches, one liquor store, and more moonshine stills than anywhere else in the world.

Cover Story

Silent and stealthy, the men in camouflage trudge through the Virginia woods. In a clearing ahead, some wild turkeys sprint for cover, darting helter-skelter and screeching insanely. The men pay no heed to the fleeing birds, because they're not the prey the men have in mind. The Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) agents are hunting

for moonshiners.

About a half-mile back, on the blind curve of a back-country road, they piled out of a van and scrambled into the woods. They waded single-file through some scrub pine and jumped a creek brimming with crystal-clear mountain water—perfect for making moonshine. Then they ducked under rusted barbed wire and, after waiting for a pickup truck to pass on the horizon, they performed a wide flanking maneuver around an open meadow where cattle graze.

Now the men regroup

and stand still, and listen,

and watch.

The countryside, framed by the surrounding Blue Ridge mountains, is beyond tranquil, the occasional swatting of a cow's tail the only sign of life. It's late morning, a perfect time for hunting moonshiners: They typically arrive at a still just before dawn, and it takes a while to get things cooking. When the agents make their raid, they want to find the still hands up to their elbows in sour mash.

It's hard to believe all this fuss is over some homemade booze out in the middle of nowhere, especially since I'm nursing an epic hangover from some state-approved, store-bought stuff. I move through the brambles, regretting I surrendered to the urge. ... Continued

Issue of Apr. 11 - 17, 1997

News and Features

Still Cookin'
Welcome to Franklin County, Va., land of 60,000 springs, 150 churches, one liquor store, and more moonshine stills than anywhere else in the world.
Cover Story By Eddie Dean
Trial and Error
D.C.'s Abundant Life Clinic is still pushing its wonder drug alpha interferon, but medical events seem to have passed it by.
The City By Julie Wakefield
Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution
Angela Davis is coming to D.C. to stir things up.
The City By Deborah Rouse
Cleaning House
How Duke Ellington janitor Ron Hillyer ended up on the stairway to hell
The City By Amanda Ripley
Ebony and Ivory Tower
District colleges need some remedial classes in handling racial controversies on campus.
The City By Zenon Zawada
Daddendum
The Mail By Steven Brown
The Mentor of Our Discontent
The Mail By The Staff of Mentors Inc.
Escape Artist
The Mail By Jeffon Johnson
Star Fucker
The Mail By Richard Karpel
The Coffee Grindstone
The Mail By Mike Cohee
Killjoy
The Mail By William Mosley
Ride, Guilt Boy, Ride
The Mail By Katie Mann
The Marion Candidate
The Mail By Tommy Wells
Passion Play
The Mail By Andrew Williams

Columns

Root Canal
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
CityDesk
City Desk
Ward 6 Stretch Run
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins

Eats

Drive to the Parkway
Young & Hungry By Brett Anderson

Movies

Hit Me
Film Review By Arion Berger
School Daze
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Divinities
Film Review By Joel E. Siegel

Music

The Big 3
Music Review By Rickey Wright
Live
Music Review By John Cloud
Tibet: The Heart of Dharma
Music Review By Steve Kiviat
Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Charlie Parker Collection
Music Review By Christopher Porter
French Twist
Music Review By Arion Berger